We are suffering greatly under the weight of poor nutrition and lifestyle choices.
66% of Americans are overweight. And about half of these are obese…
Add to that the suffering caused by depression, cancer, heart disease, strokes and a multitude of other preventable diseases and the picture is very grim.
No man is an island. One person’s suffering affects us all…
I feel very strongly that if we follow the right ideas to create health, then medicine would be greatly reduced to a few main areas such as trauma, congenital diseases — stuff like that.
We’ve lost our way in ever-deepening civilization and industrialization. We’ve lost our connection to nature, a connection that we are exquisitely tied to at the level of our genetics.
How can we get back to nature?
The answer is by living more simply and by living as close to a natural life as possible, in terms of food choices, getting some exercise, lots of fresh air, sunlight — by checking all the health boxes.
The solutions are so simple that it’s easy to dismiss them. But very simple changes can have profound effect years down the line. For example if you stopped drinking coffee today, the difference 10 years from now would be massive. The same is true for smoking, taking some exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables.
The choices we make now have massive implications for our future — such as whether we develop life threatening illnesses, and when. But they also affect our moment to moment experience of life, how much joy and happiness we feel in the present moment.
Life shouldn’t only be measured in years but in zings! The more you are aligned with your genetic needs — food, exercise, fresh air… and the more of your inner needs are met — peace of mind, positive relationships and so on, the more zings you get!
How to get more zings!
There’s a few ways that human needs can be categorized. I have my own list, whose items I believe make up a very happy, healthy lifestyle. Happy Guide contains the full list, and how to achieve that lifestyle yourself.
If you cover the bases well, you’ll maximize your chances of being the healthiest, happiest and well-adjusted human being you can be.
Some of the areas are more important than others. Or rather I should say that people have gone astray in some of these areas more than others. Just getting the main ones right will mean the others will pretty much take care of themselves because…
Everything affects everything else
All these factors work together to create a wonderful synergistic whole. Removing stimulants for example affects sleep, which in turn affects relationships, clarity of thinking… in fact all the other groups.
Change one area and positive benefits crop up in all the other areas too. If you started a meditation and relaxation routine, that would also mean you’d view your life more clearly and see solutions better.
The more relaxed you would be less inclined to make bad choices and would be more tolerant with other people.
I do feel though, that the most important groups are sleep, nutrition and exercise. The consequences of poor nutrition are massive and far reaching. Once the body becomes deficient in a certain micronutrient for example, all sorts of bad things can happen.
Of course, the opposite is also true. If the body is getting first class nutrition on a regular basis, all sorts of amazing things can happen…
Add all these factors together and something truly amazing is possible. Health and happiness on a level you may have never before even experienced — except perhaps as a child, but now forgotten.
Someone said to me recently…
“I didn’t know it was possible to feel this good.”
That’s because we can only reference our own experience.
If you’ve always felt below par, how do you know it’s possible to feel any different, any better? In fact it’s the norm to accept declining health, headaches, aches and pain, even diseases like arthritis, as a normal part of life or ageing.
Declining health is not inevitable
I feel passionately that a large part of human suffering can be alleviated with simple lifestyle changes.
Why am I so sure?
Because I was in hell for 13 years with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome — that’s a lot of pain and suffering. And a lot of time to figure out “Why?” 13 years of barely breaking into a grin, contrasted against the experience of energy, joy, laughter, happiness and all the other stuff that comes with health…
How did I get from A to B? Lifestyle changes — that’s it.
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Michael Kinnaird is the author of Happy Guide, the result of a 20 year exploration into what works for health and happiness.
Read Chapter 1 “The Happiness Secret”
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Hi Siobhan,
Being remedies, the Bach Flower Remedies are not really my area of focus, which is ‘How to create health’. I believe that all remedies should fall under the category of ‘crisis management’. Ideally, you don’t want to get to that point and even if you did, there’s probably more effective ways of dealing with a crisis than homeopathy.
Although I don’t know much about it, I’m skeptical. Could the effects be placebo, which is known to alter the outcome of an illness considerably?
Perhaps the belief that it works and the positive benefits of that belief are responsible for the effects?
If people get benefit, even if it’s placebo, that’s got to be a good thing but I’m concerned about the focus here… the idea that something’s gone wrong that needs to be fixed.
It’s more of the ‘pill for an ill’ mindset that stops people really taking reponsibilty for their health.
What do you think about homeopathy?
Cheers
Mike
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Hi Mike, I’m a Happy Guide owner and I love your list! I also agree with what you said about choices we make now affecting our future…..we’re such an ‘instant gratification’ society….I want it now, I want to feel good ~now~ etc… We’ve got to change our thinking. By the way, what do you think of Bach Flower Remedies and homeopathic medicine in general?
All the best,
Siobhan
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